Spellblade - Dagger + Staff Small Scale PvP Build
- High Burst Damage
- High Single Target DPS
- Great Mobility
- High Skill Floor & Skill Ceiling
- Squishy
Overview
Staff and Dagger build for small-scale PvP with an almost assassin-like approach, emphasizing dagger skills for mobility while leveraging the staff's potent burst damage to complement the dagger's mobility. This build can be used perfectly in small scale PVP like night time open world dungeon fights, dominion events or even arena!
Attributes
Maximizing damage output is crucial for this build, making Dexterity and Perception the primary attributes to focus on. By allocating points into these stats, you can significantly enhance your DPS, ensuring that you can deal good damage throughout each fight. Additionally, investing in Wisdom for extra mana regeneration can be good to sustain yourself, although the primary focus should remain on maximizing damage through Dexterity and Perception. Do not neglect 30 points into Strength though as it offers a good amount of extra health.
Skills
The Staff & Dagger is an excellent choice for solo players who prefer not to rely on guilds or for those who enjoy engaging in small group pvp against larger groups or groups of similar size.
In terms of skills, your main damage will be coming from your Judgment Lightning, fully charged Serial Fire Bombs, Chain Lightning and even your Brutal Incision and Cleaving Moonlight combo is capable of doing great quick bursts of damage. And so you should prioritize these skills when leveling them up, aiming to push them to purple as soon as possible to have an easier time leveling as well.
Icebound Tomb freezes enemies in place and also lowers their resistances and allows you to control enemies by freezing them up to how long you wish as you can use the ability again to free them and set up the kill on the enemy. Ice Spear is a great follow-up as it binds the target and allows you to deal damage without them being able to close the distance to you. However, you shouldn't prioritize upgrading this skill past level 3 as the damage increase is very low.
As far as passives go, you should focus on upgrading Flame Condensation for additional damage. Assassin's Instincts for extra crit rate and Shadow Walker as a defensive skill that can be triggered at any time by simply using your Block Blade (you don't have to actually roll to the side to activate this, just pressing your block is enough). It also activates whenever you use Shadow Strike or Cleaving Moonlight. Make sure that you keep daggers as main weapon to make use of the extra evasion.
Equipment
These are the first items you should strive for through the leveling period as they are very easy to get and upgrade or trait as needed. However, you shouldn't try to trait these items too much as you won't be spending too much time playing with this setup before you start changing pieces into the Midgame. The green accessories however are very easy to trait as you can craft many of them quickly in order to get the correct traits so you should consider traiting them until you change into purples. The same goes for the blue ring as you keep it for a long time.
This is the gear you should transition to once you're leveled to 50 and start grinding gear. It is comprised of gear you can get either from dungeons or by completing Litographs, they are relatively easy to trait up and you will spend most of the time wearing this set before advancing into the late game so traiting these items is very important and should be your main focus.
This is the current endgame gear you should aim for, and while it isn't easy to acquire, it offers great power without the need of acquiring archboss gear pieces. However, items like Tevent's Fangs of Fury or other archboss weapons are superior but difficult to acquire for the majority of players. If you do manage to get the archboss weapons for your build, feel free to use them over the weapons shown here.
Weapon Masteries
Melee Defense |
Mana Regen |
Mana Cost Efficiency |
Magic Hit Chance |
Melee Evasion |
Mana Regen |
Mana Regen |
Melee Defense |
Silence Resistance | ||||||||||
Mana Regen |
Damage |
Magic Hit Chance |
Magic Critical Hit Chance |
Damage |
Mana Regen |
Skill Damage Boost |
Cooldown Speed |
Bonus Damage |
Cooldown Speed | |||||||||
Mana Regen |
Weaken Chance |
Burning Damage |
Max Mana |
Magic Hit Chance |
Burning Chance |
Weaken Chance |
Wisdom |
Magic Damage Dealt |
Ranged Defense |
Health Regen |
Debuff Duration |
Mana Cost Efficiency |
Cooldown Speed |
Evasion |
Buff Duration |
Ranged Defense |
Weaken Resistance | ||||||||||
Movement Speed |
Melee Hit Chance |
Off-Hand Weapon Attack Chance |
Weaken Chance |
Mana Regen |
Buff Duration |
Silence Chance |
Mana Cost Efficiency |
Melee Hit Chance |
Cooldown Speed | |||||||||
Melee Critical Hit Chance |
Damage |
Off-Hand Weapon Attack Chance |
Melee Critical Hit Chance |
Cooldown Speed |
Critical Damage |
Damage |
Skill Damage Boost |
Added Attack Speed |
Staff: Start by allocating 9 points into Destroy to reduce cooldowns and boost damage, a critical part of this build. Next, invest in Attribute to enhance burning damage, increase burn chance, and improve cooldown efficiency. Finally, place the last 1 point into Mana for a minor defensive benefit.
Dagger: Focus 9 points into Disguise to boost your evasion and survivability, making daggers a powerful weapon choice. Follow this with 9 points in Assassination to significantly increase your damage potential. Use the remaining 1 point in Poison to improve weaken chance for additional utility.
Rotations
- This rotation is focused on delivering the highest possible damage to a single target while maintaining them CC'd during the duration. Start with High Locus to buff yourself before using Serial Fire Bombs to apply damage and burn stacks. Continue with Ice Spear to bind your target before channeling a full cast of Judgment Lightning followed by a second hit.
- Finish off the rotation with Chain Lightning before transitioning into melee rotation or going for another target. Keep in mind that you can start this rotation out of stealth too, using Camouflage Cloak.
- This is your melee kill rotation, usually used as follow up to the Single Target Burst rotation but it can also be used on its own to do damage up close while maintaining high evasion rate.
- Begin with Shadow Strike to boost evasion rate thanks to Shadow Walker. Use Brutal Incision to deal damage before following up with Ankle Strike to lock down the enemy and keep them prone so you can finish off the rotation using Cleaving Moonlight two times. This last ability also triggers Shadow Walker again so you can safely retreat by using Shadow Strike again.
Frost Smokescreen: This is a good mobility skill to compliment Shadow Strike without having to go in on the offense and risking it against an enemy by teleporting to them. You can also use this to kite as it slows down enemies that walk through the frost AOE left behind when you use Frost Smokescreen.
High Locus: You should use this ability regularly to increase your hit rate and also improve your evasion!
Camouflage Cloak: This ability remains one of your most valuable tools for turning the tide of a fight in your favor or making a swift escape. The stealth provided by Camouflage Cloak offers versatility for both initiating and evading engagements, allowing for creative tactical movement.
Useful Information
- Select Lady Knight Kamarshea as your guardian; it provides essential protection with its shield, capable of absorbing damage equal to 50% of your mana. This not only aids in mitigating damage but also increases your cooldown speed in order to let you heal more often. However, you can also use Shade Revenant Stheno or Geen Ranger Elowen if you are looking to deal extra damage or root enemies if you are in a party that has to burst down enemies quickly or lock down groups.
Comments
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